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(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet I.

' A H. SANCHE.

APPARATUS FOR TREATING DISEASES.

Patented July 27, 1897.

0 Ah u n L GNU w .No, 587,237.

(No Model.)

3 SheetsSheet H. SANOHE.

V APPARATUS FOR TREATING DISEASES.

Patented July '27, 1897.

(No Model.) a 3 Sheets-Sheet 3.

H. SAN CHE. APPARATUS FOR TREATINGDISBASES.

No.587,23'7. Patent ed July 27,1897.-

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UNITED STm ns PATENT O FICE HERCULES SANCHE, on NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, ASSIGNOR TO THE ANIMARIUM COMPANY, or NEW-YORK, N. Y.

APPARATUS FOR TREATING DISEASES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 587,237, dated July 27, 1897.

Application filed October 27, 1887. Serial No- 253,491. on model.)

To all whom it may concern.- Be it known that I, HERCULES SANCHE, a citizen of the United States, residing at New Orleans, in the parish of Orleans and State of Louisiana,have invented a new and Improved Method of and Apparatus for Treating Diseases, of which the following is a'specification.

In an application for a patent filed by me September 17,1885, Serial No. 177,387, I have advanced certain new ideas and theories concerning the disturbance of the normal functions of life commonly known as disease.

, My observation and experience justify the belief thatmost diseases, and especially those of a nervous character, are due to a disturbance of the electrical equilibrium of the body.

- It is well known that the earth and the surrounding envelop of air are strongly charged with an opposite polarity, and that any disturbance of the .normal' relations of these forces, such as occurs before a thunderstorm, results in discomfort to the whole animal' tribe. The habits of civilized life- -z'. e.,

the wearing of shoes and clothing of non-conducting material and the insulation from the earth by dry floors and feather bedsprevent the body from partaking freely of the electrical equilibrium of the earth, and a preponderance of an electric tension of either a posi-.

tive or negative character in the body produces by a stimulation or suppression of chemico-vital function the abnormal condition of things the symptoms of which we call disease. Hogs in the field, turtles, aligators, and the lower animals that lie in the "mud and readily partake of or assimilate themselves to the electrical conditions of the earth are notoriously freefrom disease" and nervousness. Man, the feathered tribe, and

higher animals who are covered with a nonconducting coat and aremore or less insulated from the earth are subject to these difficulties in marked contrast. Pursuing this theory, I have undertaken to correct these difiiculties not .b yan attack upon the symp-- J torus after the manner of medication, but by the logical processof bringing to; bear upon the system ajst of influences reverse to those which involved the difiicultie's.

In my first application I only contemplated equilibrium, for this would only seem to preserve health, but it contemplates the removal of' abnormal conditions by-p'rpducing an electrical tension in the body contrary to that which superinducedthe disease, and for this purpose I have found that the'contact of the body through a small conductor with a source of extraordinary heat or extraordinary cold permits me to produce either a positive or negative condition in the body without connecticn withthe earth, itheing remembered atthe outstart that the electrical condition referred to by me has nothing whatever to do with galvanism or dynamic currents, but is only a condition of electric potential or static polarity. This agency permits me to reach all the functions of the body and bring them into healthy and effective action, stimulating the chemi'co-vital processes without having to rely upon the single channel of an enfeebled and diseased stomach, which is al- .niost the only avenue of treatment by medi cation. I

The apparatus which I use for carrying out 8.0 my invention is of-an extremely simple character and is shown in various application in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 represents an ofiice or chamber of a dwelling .equipped with an apparatus on the right for connection with the earth or a water-cooler, while on the left is an apparatus for connection with a lamp-stove or the roof of the building. Figs.'2 and 3 represent two forms. of portable apparatus, Fig. '3 being 0 folded 3 and Fig. 4. shows an application of the device shown in Fig. 2 to a patient.

In Fig. 1, P represents a water-cooler, which is aconvenient domestic article for applying electric eflects of cold to the body. This cooler is connected, by a a binding-screw 0 with a wire or tinsel cord 1', which is supported along the sides of the room upon brackets or binding-posts N fastened into the wall. At'the end of this cord a metal claspa connects the rec conducting wire or filament of the cord with a pad h which may have an exposed metal surface of scales, plates, or coils, as ,in Fig. 2, or

which scales, plates, or coils may be contained within the layers of the pad and be brought in electrical contact with any portion of a patient's body by wetting the pad. This pad has tie-cords f to facilitate its application to the body. Mis'an electrical switch by which the wire 2' may be thrown into contact with a ground-wire 2'', which has a metal anchor L embedded in the moist earth, and which connection renders it. possible to connect the patient with the earth to put him in the same electric tension with the earth. On the left of the same figure is shown a lamp-stove K the metal casing of which is by a binding post 0 connected to the wire r, carried on brackets I or binding-posts N and to the end of which ing the system to throw off disease.

wire is attached an electrode Q of cylindrical shape for application to the body. -A switch )I. serves also to connect wire r to a branch wire r'iwhich connects with a plate L on the metal roof of the building, so as to make available solar heat. Thetwo sets of apparatus shown in this figure serve to carry out the principle of my invention with opposite effects. It is not pretended that there is any flow of current or any of the phemomena of dynamic electricity manifest in this apparatus, but. only a charging of the body with a certain magnetic polarity, the effects of which upon the system are remarkable in stimulat- The cold or earth connection I find almost universally applicable to allay nervousness and stimulate the system by counteracting one polarity of the body. I

' The hot connection is for the opposite p0- laritysuch, for instance, as exists in inflammatory fevers-its eifect being usually to first raise the temperature and then bring the body to a normal temperature by dissipating congestion and starting the perspiration.

The manner in which I believe the charging of the body with a positive or negative polarity acts upon the system to eifect physiological changes is by the exertion of an attractive infiuenceand the stimulating of an endosmose of gases of the air through the capillaries and electrolytic action in the cells, which agencies by intelligent application are made to arrest various disorders;

In Figs. 2 and 3 are shown portable examples of my apparatus. In Fig. 2 a number of cylinders Q Q Q Q with screw-caps are electrieally, connected by wires to a coupling e", which in turn is connected electrically to the clasp a on the pad \V, formed with metal scales d and provided with the tie-cords f These metal cylinders Q (2?, &c., for greater surface simply they have no function of an electromagnet nor induction-coil. In practice they are to be suspended in a vessel V of ice water and the pad applied to the ankle or'wrist of the patient, as shown in Fig. 4. In Fig. 3 a sinare made of coiled wire, but

gle cylinder Q has its pad wrapped around it and its tic-cords f formed into a how I), so as to constitute a pocket apparatus.

I am aware that it is well known to apply to patients the cooling effectof direct contact or radiation of hot bricks, bottles of water, &c., and also to apply directly cooling applications of ice. The application of these is entirely different from my invention in that I do not employ cold or heat, nor do I apply it in the same way. I utilize the influence of a cold or hot object at a distance through a conductor of electricity, the source of its' influence being removed to a-point out of range of direct radiation or conduction of heat.

Another importantand distinguishing feature of my invention is that the wire connection which I employ does not necessarily have the qualities of a conductpr for dynamic electricity where flow or passage of the current increases with the increase of cross-sectional areas of the conductor, but I find ordinarily that the best effects are produced with a very' small copper wire, varying in size from 2; to 30, and when great variations in temperature-i. e., an intense degree of cold or intense degree of heat-are employed the tendency to best effects are produced by the finer wire, and vice versa. This strengthens my belief that the principle which is made available is not of a dynamic character, but only such small wire is required as to permit the polarity in molecules of the wire to inducea corresponding polarity of the body and to make of the body a feeble magnet of positive or negative polarity, according to the character of the connection (hot or cold) andthe nature of the disease. 1

In substantiating by analogy the effect of hot or cold connection upon magnetism in inanimate things I find by test that of normal temperature connected at its equator to a body of ice-water by a fine wire will, after a lapse of several days, show a strengthening of its north pole its south pole, south pole moving gradually toward the equa' tor. body (the heat of a stove) shows precisely the the direct conduction of a magnet Y A magnet similarly connected to a'hot and a weakening of the center of magnetism in the reverse- 1; e., a strengthening of the south A can be. substituted for.

what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters; 7

Patent, is-

The clinical instrument comprising a con:

tact plate or member adapted to be attached bcrs'and of a length suflicient to permit said to the body to be treated, a second plate or two plates or members to be placed at such member adapted to be placed in or under the distances apart that the body having one I5 influence of .a temperature higher or lower plateor member attached thereto will be re- 5 than the body to which the other plate is atmoved beyond the range of influence trans- I tached, or under the influence of matter which mitted by direct radiation, conduction or conis electropositive or electronegative to the tact from said other plate or member, subbody having said other plate or member atstantially as described.

tached to-it, and a flexible conducting or HERCULES SANCHE. 1o transmitting mediumconnecting said two Witnesses:

plates or members, said medium being of a. a EDW. W. BYRN,

relatively small size to said plates or mem- SOLON C. KEMON. 

